Significant facial emotion recognition (FER) deficits have been observed in participants exhibiting high
levels of eating psychopathology. The current study aimed to determine if the pattern of FER deficits is
influenced by intensity of facial emotion and to establish if eating psychopathology is associated
with a specific pattern of emotion recognition errors that is independent of other psychopathological
or personality factors. Eighty females, 40 high and 40 low scorers on the Eating Disorders Inventory
(EDI) were presented with a series of faces, each featuring one of five emotional expressions at one of four
intensities, and were asked to identify the emotion portrayed. Results revealed that, in comparison to
Low EDI scorers, high scorers correctly recognised significantly fewer expressions, particularly of fear
and anger. There was also a trend for this deficit to be more evident for subtle displays of emotion
(50% intensity). Deficits in anger recognition were related specifically to scores on the body dissatisfaction
subscale of the EDI. Error analyses revealed that, in comparison to Low EDI scorers, high scorers
made significantly more and fear-as-anger errors. Also, a tendency to label anger expressions as sadness
was related to body dissatisfaction. Current findings confirm FER deficits in subclinical eating psychopathology
and extend these findings to subtle expressions of emotion. Furthermore, this is the first study to
establish that these deficits are related to a specific pattern of recognition errors. Impaired FER could disrupt
normal social functioning and might represent a risk factor for the development of more severe
psychopathology.